Ryzen 7 3700x with X470: Compatible Setup?

The Ryzen 7 3700X and X470 are two high-end PC component releases of recent years. 

Their top-tier specs make them a powerful beast and you can pretty much run any recent Triple-A titles on them. However, pairing both as a combo can provide a whole different outcome. 

So, how to set up Ryzen 7 3700x with X470?

To set up the Ryzen 7 3700X and the X470, you’ll need to check the BIOS version. Ensure that the motherboard’s BIOS version is 5406 or over it. If it’s not, the motherboard can’t support the Ryzen 7 3700X. In such a case, you can upgrade the BIOS version and ensure X470 compatibility!

Sounds interesting? Well, you can find out more if you take some time out to read the entire piece. We promise you’re going to find out a lot more information about the topic from reading this.

Is the Ryzen 7 3700X with X470 a Good Combo?

The Ryzen 7 3700X processor and the X470 motherboard (regardless of manufacturer) are strong CPUs and mobo.

But strong components are sometimes incompatible with each other. In such cases, your PC components can bleed performance!.

So you may be asking, is the X470 and the Ryzen 7 3700X a good combination?

The short answer is- yes! They are a pretty good combo. The 3700X processor packs tremendous power with its 8 cores and 16 threads. On the other hand, the X470 motherboard can be considered adjacent to this amount of power. It supports DDR4 RAM and up to 3rd generation of CPUs!

Many people admire this combination. In fact, the X470 is considered one of the best compatible motherboards for Ryzen 7 3700x.

We can see where the combo stands by comparing it with other popular Process x Motherboard combo. So here’s how the Ryzen 7 3700X x X470 fares up in a comparison of benchmark scores:

Looks like you can shave of a decent average score with the Ryzen 7 3700x and X470 combo. Paired up together, the CPU-Mobo combo even beats the popular i5 11600k x B560M combo.

Here’s an FPS chart on the gaming performance of the 3700X paired with GTX1080 ti on ULTRA settings-

Although Ryzen 3000 series processors are strong, not all of them can pair up with X470. For example, between Ryzen 7 3700x vs Ryzen 5 3600, the 3700X is more capable and strong. 

Additionally, when buying CPUs and motherboards, it’s better to keep the price ratio 1:1. It means that if you spend 200$ on processors, you should spend 150-200$ on the motherboard. 

Conveniently, the X470 motherboard price and the Ryzen 7 3700x price satisfy the ratio! Now, setting up these 2 components can be a bit tricky. However, I can be of assistance in this situation.

Unfortunately, with the X470, you won’t get much flexibility as x570. With no PCIe 4.0 chipset, you can’t use multiple 4x nvme. But the difference doesn’t really matter if your sole focus is on gaming.

In fact, the X470 seems to perform a little better with the 3700x rather than Ryzen 9 3900x. From the test we ran, the X470 performs .18% faster on 3700x. Despite being very negligible, it’s better than that of the 3900x (0.15% slower).

This result is taken from a CPU benchmark of real-world and synthetics. Now that we established the two components as highly compatible, it’s time to set them up.

I’ve provided steps and necessary info to set up the Ryzen 7 3700X and the X470. Have a look!

How to Setup Ryzen 7 3700x with X470?

Setting up the processors and motherboards is not always necessary. In most cases, it is just a plug-and-play situation. However, for high-end CPUs and mobos, it’s not always a breeze.

When considering the Ryzen 7 3700X and X470, there should be a BIOS gap. Some motherboard boxes have the sticker “Ryzen 3000 series” compatible on them. You can look out for these stickers to avoid extra hassles!

If the X470 doesn’t support AMD 3000 series CPUs, (yet) you will need to update the motherboard. The steps for upgrading the BIOS of a motherboard are given below-

• First, check the BIOS version of your motherboard. You can press the DEL, F2, etc keys to boot the PC into BIOS mode. The minimum BIOS version your motherboard has to support is 4804.
  
  If it’s newer than that, it can also run the 3700X processor without problems. Yet, to benefit from the Ryzen 3000 series processors fully, install the 5406 version for BIOS. There are many methods to update the BIOS. 

• If you cannot boot the PC or get into BIOS with the 3700X processor, don’t worry. It’s a very common issue. For this case, you have to manage an AMD Ryzen 2000 series processor. The processor will be used to update the BIOS only.

After your BIOS is ready, you can put the 3700X in its designated spot. Boot up the PC and experience the power of this combination!

The combo of X470 Ryzen 7 3700X is super powerful. Yet, you may be looking to add a bit more power. 

In such cases, using a high-powered GPU and CPU is the way to go. For instance, if you have a GTX 1060, you can look for GTX1060 upgrade options.

Upgrading the GPU can increase the PC rendering abilities immensely. Similarly, you can upgrade the CPUs too. In this case, overclocking the Ryzen 7 3700X can be a good idea. But what are the steps?

Don’t worry my friend, I got you! In the next segment, I have given a detailed step-by-step process to help you overclock the 3700X!

How to Overclock Ryzen 7 3700X?

Since there is an ‘X’ at the end of the Ryzen 7 3700X, it can be overclocked. In Intel processors, the indicator is a ‘K’. For instance, the Intel Core i9-9700K processor.

There are a few steps that you have to follow in order to OC your CPU.

For your convenience, I have provided them below. Here’s the step-by-step guide to overclocking Ryzen 7 3700X–

• To start off, open the Ryzen master software. This software is one of the best software to overclock the Ryzen CPUs. In the Ryzen master, create a new profile to overclock the CPU. (OC max)

• Then, locate the control mode sections. By default, the control mode should be set to ‘custom’. Set the control mode of your Ryzen 7 3700X to manual for you to control it. 

• For the next step, find the ‘Cores’ section. There will be a setting called ‘mirror speeds’. Set the value to 0. It’s an important step because any value other than 0 might mess up the overclocking process.

Along with that, you’ll have to set the speed and the voltage control. Since these 2 factors will increase over time, set them low initially. For the speed, set it to 4.4GHz. For the voltage control, set the voltage to 1.4 volts. 

• Finally, after the settings are confirmed, press the ‘apply and test’ button. The test should pass for this step. 

You can test the overclocking through many stress tests. After overclocking, the benchmark of Ryzen 7 3700x should increase substantially. 

To overclock the CPU further, repeat the process. The increment of the speed and voltage should be 25MHz and 0.025 volts. Do it until you reach the maximum speed of the 3700X processor.

Overclocking the processor will make it more power-hungry and powerful. The benchmark score will boost by almost 5.19% percent! 

So, some small adjustments to the components are necessary to support this performance boost. Make sure you have these things on the OC 3700X-

• Firstly, there should be at least 16 gigabytes of RAM. You can set the 16GB RAM in different combinations. 

• Using an SSD will exponentially improve your how your PC performs. And the same is true for the combo as well. So make sure you install your OS in an SSD.

If you’re looking for some great SSD to bolster your Ryzen 7 3700x x470, we got recommendations. We went through all the available SSD options in the market and picked the best available ones. Here, have a look:

These SSDs offer speed, storage, and longevity; all in one! Grab yours today!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What Is AMD’s Fastest Processor?

The Ryzen threadripper 3990X is currently the fastest AMD processor out there. This beast of a processor has 64 cores and 128 threads. That makes iThe threadripper lineup has many processors that are really powerful. If you’re planning on buying this processor, make sure your motherboard is powerful enough.

How Long Will AM4 Last?

AM4 can last for very long times, as AMD will have support for it. Lisa Su, the chief executive officer of AMD has confirmed this. The AM4 architecture was invented back in 2017 and it is still a very powerful microprocessor. The new AM5 has caused the AM4 to be kind of backdated, but it’s still capable. .

Is X570 Future Proof?

Yes, the X570 is future-proof. The X570 is one of the motherboards that packs in aesthetics, power, and high specifications. Accordingly, these high specifications are actually the factors that make this motherboard future-proof. Regardless of the manufacturer, you can upgrade this mobo till 2025, at least!

The Final Words

This is the finish line of this article. Hopefully, now you know how to set up the Ryzen 7 3700x with x470.

While buying the motherboard, you can ask the employees at the store to double-check the compatibility!

All the best.